JP Morgan picks Nomura banker for senior Middle East job

Wednesday, 10 Oct 2012 | 6:44 AM ET

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DUBAI, Oct 10 (Reuters) - J.P. Morgan Chase Inc has hired Ahmed Saeed from Nomura Holdings to head up its Middle East business focused on public sector clients, the U.S. bank said in a statement on Wednesday.

Nomura, in the process of making $1 billion in cost cuts, is cutting investment banking jobs in Dubai, sources told Reuters last month. J.P. Morgan, on the other hand, has been beefing up in the region and has made some top-level banking appointments this year.

Saeed was most recently a managing director at Nomura's investment banking division in Dubai, where he handled public sector clients for the Japanese bank.

He will report to Abdulaziz al-Helaissi, head of J.P. Morgan's global corporate bank for the Middle East and North Africa and also to Daniel Zelikow, head of the bank's international public sector group, the bank said.

In April, J.P. Morgan named Declan Hegarty, previously head of HSBC's Abu Dhabi business as a managing director at its global corporate bank division covering the United Arab Emirates.

The bank also hired Rayan Fayez, a senior banker from Goldman Sachs Inc in Riyadh as its new investment banking head and co-chief executive of Saudi Arabia.

Middle East investment banking fees reached $402.2 million for the first nine months of the year, a 23 percent increase from the same period last year, according to Thomson Reuters data. The upturn in fees points to a slight increase in activity in the region which was hit badly by the financial crisis.